Word.ws English Dictionary

pretentiously

UK/pɹɪˈtɛnʃəsliː/US/pɹɪˈtɛnʃəsliː/

pretentiously adverb: in a manner with unwarranted claim to importance or distinction.

Adverb

pretentiously (comparative more pretentiously, superlative most pretentiously)

  1. In a manner with unwarranted claim to importance or distinction.
  2. Ostentatiously; in a manner intended to impress others.
    • Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence. She devoured with more avidity than she had her food those pretentiously phrased chronicles of the snobocracy—[…]—distilling therefrom an acid envy...1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy)...
  3. In a manner demanding of skill or daring.

Forms of pretentiously

comparativemore pretentiously
superlativemost pretentiously

Origin of pretentiously

From pretentious + -ly.

Questions about pretentiously

What does pretentiously mean?
Pretentiously means in a manner with unwarranted claim to importance or distinction.
What part of speech is pretentiously?
Pretentiously is an adverb.
How do you pronounce pretentiously?
Pretentiously is pronounced /pɹɪˈtɛnʃəsliː/ (UK).

Words near pretentiously in the dictionary

  1. pretentative
  2. pretention
  3. pretentions
  4. pretentiosity
  5. pretentious
  6. pretentiously
  7. pretentiousness
  8. pretentiousnesses
  9. pretenure
  10. preter-
  11. preter-human

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pretentiously (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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